Lean Impact Jour­neyPrototyping phaseMVP developmentTest­ing your financ­ing strat­e­gy: Fit for the pitch
Develop MVP: Testing solutions for impact startups under real-life conditions MVP on the test bench: testing the impact of an impact startup Developing a financing strategy for an impact startup Testing your financing strategy: Fit for the pitch MVP and financing strategy: validate, optimize, grow
build measure learn
Test­ing your financ­ing strat­e­gy: Fit for the pitch

Test­ing your fund­ing strat­e­gy is a cru­cial step to ensure that it is both attrac­tive and fea­si­ble. This is the best way to pre­pare for real fund­ing rounds and build trust with investors and fun­ders.

You’ve come to the right place if …

  • you want to found an impact start­up or are already in the mid­dle of it with your team.
  • you can clear­ly iden­ti­fy your tar­get group as well as the prob­lem, solu­tion and impact.
  • you have devel­oped a val­i­dat­ed pro­to­type.
  • you have received ini­tial evi­dence of the impact of your offer at out­come lev­el.
  • you have iden­ti­fied a mar­ket for your offer­ing and devel­oped an ini­tial busi­ness mod­el.
  • have devel­oped and test­ed a Min­i­mal Viable Prod­uct (MVP).
  • you can ensure the impact mea­sure­ment of your solu­tion at the out­put and out­come lev­els.
  • you have an idea of how your solu­tion is scal­able.
  • you have devel­oped a financ­ing strat­e­gy and a pitch deck.

Not quite ready yet?
Then select the appro­pri­ate chap­ter here

This chap­ter helps to …

  • present your financ­ing strat­e­gy to investors and spon­sors.
  • get feed­back on your finan­cial plan­ning.
  • adapt your pitch deck accord­ing­ly.

This is about the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of your busi­ness mod­el and the finan­cial aspects of your solu­tion.

We deal with the impact-ori­ent­ed area here.

Mir­ror­ing the financ­ing strat­e­gy with poten­tial investors

The exchange with experts, tar­get­ed feed­back from investors and a con­tin­u­ous analy­sis of the imple­men­ta­tion will help you to iden­ti­fy weak points in your financ­ing strat­e­gy and opti­mize it in the long term.

1. get expert opin­ions

One key step is to talk to experts. Finan­cial advi­sors or investors can help you to inde­pen­dent­ly eval­u­ate your strat­e­gy, check legal require­ments and iden­ti­fy weak­ness­es. With the knowl­edge gained, you can opti­mize your plan­ning and ensure that it meets the require­ments of the mar­ket.

2. test your pitch in front of dif­fer­ent tar­get groups

In the next step, you can test your pitch deck not only in front of poten­tial investors, but also in front of stake­hold­ers, your tar­get group and experts from accel­er­a­tors or incu­ba­tors . Get tar­get­ed feed­back on your argu­men­ta­tion and finan­cial pro­jec­tions. The exchange with pitch coach­es also offers you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to improve your pre­sen­ta­tion tech­niques and get to the heart of your argu­ments.

Ques­tions that you can ask investors:

  • How do you assess our fund­ing gap and the planned use of funds?
  • Are our growth fore­casts and finan­cial pro­jec­tions real­is­tic?
  • What risks do you see in our busi­ness mod­el?
  • What addi­tion­al sources or mod­els of financ­ing do you rec­om­mend?
  • How do you rate our financ­ing mix and our diver­si­fi­ca­tion strat­e­gy?
  • What mile­stones or KPIs should we achieve with this financ­ing round?
  • What do you think of our val­u­a­tion and the terms of this financ­ing round?
  • How do you rate our strat­e­gy for main­tain­ing our com­pet­i­tive posi­tion?
  • How do you rate our plans to expand our investor base and inno­vate our financ­ing mod­els?

Mon­i­tor­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the financ­ing strat­e­gy

A suc­cess­ful strat­e­gy does not end with financ­ing — it must be con­tin­u­ous­ly mon­i­tored and adapt­ed.

1. mon­i­tor and ana­lyze your key finan­cial fig­ures

Start with a reg­u­lar analy­sis of your cash flow. A pos­i­tive and grow­ing cash flow shows that your strat­e­gy is work­ing and your liq­uid­i­ty is secure. Keep an eye on key finan­cial fig­ures such as EBIT, EBIT­DA or oper­at­ing cash flow. Com­pare these val­ues with your tar­gets and indus­try aver­ages to iden­ti­fy weak­ness­es or opti­miza­tion poten­tial.

Check whether you have reached the planned fund­ing tar­gets. Were the nec­es­sary funds secured in time? Does the real­ized financ­ing mix match your orig­i­nal plan­ning? These ques­tions will help you to make adjust­ments at an ear­ly stage and react flex­i­bly to chal­lenges.

Ana­lyze the total costs of your financ­ing, includ­ing inter­est and fees, and assess whether these are in pro­por­tion to the results achieved . At the same time, your strat­e­gy should be adapt­able to respond to mar­ket changes or mobi­lize addi­tion­al funds if nec­es­sary.

You can use the insights gained to con­tin­u­ous­ly improve your financ­ing strat­e­gy. Pre­pare specif­i­cal­ly for your financ­ing round — with a con­vinc­ing sto­ry, sol­id key fig­ures and a clear promise of impact.

Next chap­ter: Val­i­dat­ing the financ­ing strat­e­gy and MVP

Ide­al­ly, you have now reviewed your financ­ing strat­e­gy as well as your min­i­mal viable prod­uct (MVP) and the impact (see chap­ter “Min­i­mal viable prod­uct on the test bench: Test­ing the impact of an impact start­up”) checked.

In the next step we bring the two togeth­er. This ensures that your solu­tion, your busi­ness mod­el and your financ­ing strat­e­gy are aligned and ready for the next growth phase.